CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 133, 7 May 1932, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”) It was reported from London recently that the Countess of Oxford and Asquith had been compelled, by reason of high taxation and shrinking income, to dispose of the famous family home, “Tho Wharf,” at Sutton Courtney, in Berkshire. By doing so she joins the large number of great families who have been compelled to make sacrifices at great personal sorrow in this terrible depression There are much grander homes in England than “The Wharf,” but a few, it is recorded by a London correspondent, that have figured so prominently in the political and social history of this country during tho past twenty years. Once a Thames-eido mooring place for barges, and later the site of an inn, “Tho Wharf” was bought by the late Lord Oxford, then Mr Asquith, in 1912. He’ built on it a modest twostoreyed, gabled cottage which eyentually became tho week-end resort of politicians of all ages and parties, with Lady Oxford .as their gay and always witty hostess. Margot Asquith she was in those times, and Margot she remains to this day in tlio hearts of her admirers.

“The Wharf” held so strong a place in Lord Oxford’s affections that he arranged many of his momentous war consultations there, and his grave in Sutton Courtney churchyard is only a stone’s throw from the beautiful garden which his brilliant wife _ herself created. Lady Oxford’s decision to abandon the nouse and its associations was mad© with th© utmost sorrow, and only after every other avenue of relief had been discussed with members of her family. It camo as the culminating point of a series of economies which she has found it necessary to impose in recent years, despite tho fact that she has made a considerable amount of money from her writings, which include her famous memoirs and a novel, “Octavia”

* * * * • Although one of the latest peers it is interesting to note that Viscount Snowden stands eighth on the roll of peers of the new Parliament, being preceded only by tho Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Connaught, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of York. He gets this high position by virtue of being Lord Privy Seal. The roll contains at least 758 names.

A long standing dispute has been settled between two Arabian monarchs in a manner that may make western people wonder; yet, perhaps, after all there was a very subtle mind directing one move in the settlement. The monarchs were King Ibn Saud of the Hedjaz and Imam Yahia of the Yemen and the feud concerned the ownership of the Aro Mountains, a forbidding range which separates the two principalities. After years of fruitless negotiations the two monarchs agreed to arbitrate. Imam thereupon nominated his rival as tlio arbitrator, and lbn Saud, not to be outdone in generosity, awarded tho disputed territory to his rival. Not since the days of Harun-al-Rashid, the Magnificent, Caliph of Bagdad, and hero of the “Arabian Nights,” has such a delightful deed been chronicled from Arabia, comments the Christian Science Monitor in recording the event. But was Imam as guileless as lie is made to appear? Might lie not have been gifted with prescience that Ibn Saud, as his opponent’s arbitrator, would 6eek an honourable way out of the dispute by awarding the hilly domain to Imam?'

"Whether this be so or not, the journal uses the incident to suggest to western nations to take a leaf out of the book of the two Arab monarchs. Might not the French Premier, for example (it says), appoint Chancellor Bruening as arbitrator of the amount that Germany should pay in reparations? And might not President Hoover invite Mr MacDonald to fix the amount of Britain’s war debt to America? Or, if you prefer, let the names be switched around and have Chancellor Bruening appoint the French Premier as arbitrator, while Mr MacDonald pins his faith to the justice of Mr Hoover.

The construction of huge dams for New Zealand’s hydro-electric works have altered the landscape, where these great walls of masonry have been erected, as the pent up waters have formed vast lakes. Their formation, however, has not entailed the sacrifice that is reported in connection with a hydro-electric scheme in Czechoslovakia. Recently, the entire population of the small summer resort of Bitov (Voettau), on tho River Thaya, were transferred to a new home some distance away. Bitov lies in a hollow which has been flooded with water f6r the new Thaya dam, and tho inhabitants have been compensated by grants of money or of land high above the water level. The new dam, which has a length of about eighteen miles and a capacity of 150,000,000 cubic metres, is the largest of its kind in Central Europe, and can supply the whole of tho province of Moravia, and part of Slovakia, with water power. The industrial development of this part- of the Republic will receive a great impetus from this new source of power.

It is recorded that an English village met a similar fate to that of Bitov, when its site' became a lake for hydroelectric purposes, compensation being paid on a considerable scale.

* * ' * * * Mr William Wrigley, the chewing gum king, who died at the age pf 71 in Arizona from acute indigestion, founded his fortune upon an article which sold all over the globe for threepence or less. In the course of twenty years he expended more than £12,000,000 in advertisements commanding the peoples of the earth in thirty different languages to “chew.” He attributed his success to advertising. “Advertising,” he said, “is like running a train. Once you stop stoking the fire, it goes out and the engine slows down and conies to a dead stop.” Mr Wrigley’s agents in British Honduras and Northern Mexico direct a vast army of natives in gathering chicle, Die basic ingredient of chewing gum. The son of a soap manufacturer, Mr Wrigley went to Chicago and there began giving away chewing gum with bars of soap. He speedily abandoned soap. Nowadays the world is buying from his com. panies £15,000,000 worth of chewing gum a year.

After he had made his fortune Mr Wrigley purchased the island of Catalina, twenty-five miles off the coast of California. There he established an Aladdin-like home. He bought Catalina in 1919 for less than £2OO,(XX), found rich mineral resources, and recently refused to sell it for £3,000, 000. ..He acquired for £IBO,OOO the Chicago National League baseball team, with its park and franchise. Later lie became owner of the Los Angeles team. Ho was also one of the chief investors in the film industry. Mr Wrigley ran away from home when a bov of eleven and for a time earned his living as a newsboy. His father recaptured him and set him -to work stirring a soap vat for 6s a week. When he was twenty-ofie his father made him partner in the soap business.